This invention relates to an ice product making machine or apparatus and more particularly to an improved freezing unit therefor in which the volumetric efficiency of the unit can be increased by the construction of the meandering cooling coil provided to a substantially upright freezing plate in which the bends of the cooling coil do not protrude beyond the region of the freezing plate.
The typical construction of the vertical type ice product making machine or apparatus with a substantially upright freezing plate is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In the prior-art ice product making machine shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a freezing unit 1 is comprised of a generally box-like freezing mold 2 and a refrigerant pipe or cooling coil 3 affixed to the back side of the mold 2. The freezing mold 2 has a large number of freezing cells 4 defined by vertical partition plate members 2b and downwardly inclined horizontal partition plate members 2a. The freezing mold 2 is fabricated in its entirety of copper or the like thermal conductive material.
The above described freezing mold 1 is built into an outomatic ice product making machine shown in FIG. 1 A water saucer or reservoir 5 is provided at a lower portion of the automatic ice product making machine 1. The ice-making water filled in the tank 5 is supplied to the freezing mold 2 by means of a circulating pump 6 via a connecting hose 7 and a water feed tube 8. The refrigerant or cooling medium is supplied into the coil 3 through a compressor 10 and a condenser 11 provided in a housing 9 so that the mold 2 is chilled and the ice cubes are formed in the cells 4, these ice cubes being then stored in an ice cube storage tank 12 provided in the lower portion of the housing 9.
This known ice product making apparatus has a serious drawback that the freezing mold 2 is highly sophisticated in structure thus raising the costs of the overall apparatus.
The arrangement shown in FIGS. 3 (A) and (B) has been proposed as a means for obviating the drawback of the above described conventional device.
A strip 2 of a metal material having lower thermal conductivity, such as stainless steel, is formed with uniformly spaced apart rib-like partitions 2c. A pair of such strips 2 are placed vertically with their back sides 2d facing to each other and a meandering refrigerant pipe or cooling coil 3 is provided in such a manner that straight sections 3a of the cooling coil 3 are disposed within the interstice 2e defined between the plates 2 while bent parts 3b interconnecting these straight sections 3a are disposed exteriorly of the side edges 2f of the freezing plates 2.
During the ice-making process, as the ice-making water is supplied from the water feed pipe 8 (see FIG. 7) disposed at the upper portion of the interstice 2e defined between the freezing plates 2, each separate semi-cylindrical ice product 2h is formed at a portion of each flat freezing section 2g that is contacted by each transverse section 3a of the cooling coil 3, as shown at B in FIG. 3, with the axis of the half cylinder aligned with that of the associated straight section 3a.
The vertical type freezing mold shown in FIG. 3 may be freed of the deficiencies of the prior-art device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. However, while the straight sections 3a are flattened on either sides at 3c for contacting with the back sides 2d of the freezing plates 2, the bends 3b are toroidal and project exteriorly of the side edges 2f of the freezing plates 2. The result is that the freezing mold 1 becomes bulky and the dead volume of the mold 1 is increased, thus proving to be a great hindrance in the construction of the small-sized ice-product making machine or apparatus.